Stumped? Have You Checked for These Records? Minutes, by Paula Stuart-Warren, CG

Not hours, not seconds, but minutes. You may be asking yourself, “What on earth is she talking about this time?”

Does your genealogical society have a secretary who types the minutes of each board meeting? How about minutes resulting from meetings of school boards, unions, businesses, institutions, and organizations–what can they do for our family history research? The answer is simple: plenty.

Historic minutes may be stored in an office, courthouse, church office, archive, or historical society. They may be in original format, in bound volumes, on microfilm, and today, some are being digitized for online viewing. Someone may have indexed, abstracted, or transcribed older minutes and published or posted the material.

What are Minutes?
These are official recordings of what goes on at meetings. Some are quite detailed and include many names; others are not much more than a brief list of what transposed at the meeting. The more meaty ones are filled with genealogical gold. Over several years these provide a good snapshot of a community and the organization’s activities. In the U.S. today, if an organization has been granted non-profit status from the Internal Revenue Service or a state government, minutes are a requirement and those of both board and committee meetings must be retained.

What’s in Them for Genealogists?
Among the things that various types of minutes may yield are names of those in attendance, financial operation, debts, pledges, reports, names of church officials, names of people applying for aid, objections to government business, descriptions of farms or buildings and stores in town, road improvements, legal changes, election reports, hospital patient data, and even the weather! Both famous, average, and infamous people are mentioned.

Churches
You might be disappointed to learn that a church did not save or maybe never kept records related to such things as marriages and burials. Perhaps there are minutes that may provide some wonderful historical and genealogical details. For individuals and families, membership, baptisms, deaths, marriages, dismissals, geographic moves, and more may be included. The church board may have had to deal with a person who was not living in accordance with the denomination’s rules. Maybe an ancestor was a member of the board. Minutes from some church groups may also survive. A couple of archived examples are:

Gillfield Baptist Church Minutes, 1815-1827
his folder contains 247 images. The first 23 images record baptisms and membership. This section includes images of pages in the minute book that have seven columns with the following column titles: [male?] Members; Rec’d by Baptism; Rec’d by Letters; Dismissed by Letters; Expelled; Restored; Deceased.” This is the second oldest African American church in Petersburg, Virginia. Virginia Commonwealth University’s James Branch Cabell Library, Richmond, Virginia, Special Collections and Archives.

First Presbyterian Church Collection [Houston, Texas] 1839-1992.
Includes Series 1-4, Board of Deacons Minutes; Series 2. Session Minutes; Series 3. Joint Board Meeting Minutes; Series 4. Congregational Meeting Minutes. Housed at the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library.

County Commissioners
The ongoing business of a county or city generates minutes. Maybe the county commissioners dealt with a person who required some type of relief aid for a two-year period of time. Did the person need to have a coffin provided for a child who died? Was your ancestor the spirited resident always challenging the commissioners’ decisions? The discussion about a property dispute might be included.

Court Minutes
Minutes of the activities of various levels of courts exist in many archives, historical societies, and courthouses. These include the names of many individuals, families, businesses, and organizations. Evidence may show for a will, estate proceeding, land or tax issue, criminal activity, property dispute, jury list, business license, or one of many other actions.

School Board
Official school business is covered including awarding of jobs, bids, payments, taxes, school district boundaries, teacher hiring, a problematic teacher or parent, and a parent petitioning for his children to attend school in a district other than that where their home sits. One set I have seen details the payments for supplies and some school district work paid directly to board members. This was definitely before today’s use of bidding processes!

Other Organizations
Maybe the minutes of a hereditary organization mention your ancestor’s oft tried application or the wonderful volunteer service your grandmother provided. The minutes of a local aid society may hold the names of everyone in a household that needed aid. Another group’s minutes might explain why your family members became the head of the organization. One example of such a set of records is the Sons of the American Revolution, Empire State Society Records, 1890-1992 at the New York State Library.  http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/sc22749.htm

But . . .
s, many minutes are not indexed, but with all the possible details they contain, should that stop you from looking for them? I hope not! Older court minutes are more likely to have been indexed by a fellow genealogist. A church’s minutes might be indexed by a parishioner who knows the value of the contents; or, the records may have been microfilmed for preservation.

They are Found . . .
Before running off to a courthouse or organization’s office, check these places first for indexes, abstracts, or the actual minutes themselves.

The “Have You Checked for These Records?” series is designed to acquaint readers with records often overlooked in the research process. For those who missed earlier installments, here are links to
them:

Click here for a printer friendly version of this article.

About the Author
Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, of St. Paul, Minnesota, is a professional genealogist, consultant, writer, and lecturer who is frequently on- the-road. She coordinates the intermediate course, American Records and Research, at the annual Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. She writes for several periodicals including Ancestry Magazine. Comments will reach her at [email protected], but she regrets that she is unable to answer individual genealogical research inquiries due to the volume of requests. From time to time, comments from readers may be quoted in her writings. Your name will not be used, but your place of residence might be listed (e.g., Casa Grande, AZ).
      
Upcoming Appearances by Paula Stuart-Warren, CG

One thought on “Stumped? Have You Checked for These Records? Minutes, by Paula Stuart-Warren, CG

  1. Great article! My great-grandfather Elwin Rockwell held various positions in the local government. I’ve found that the County Township Supervisors meetings minutes were often published in the local newspaper. They met either 2 times a year or 4. In our area there is a set of the newspapers from 1888 and on at the the local Library.

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